Jim Rutherford, President and General Manager of the National Hockey League’s Carolina Hurricanes, announced today that defenseman Niclas Wallin will undergo surgery on his right shoulder on Saturday at Rex Hospital. The procedure will be performed by Dr. Marty Isbell of Raleigh Orthopaedic and Wallin is expected to miss three to four weeks.

If he were a Dive, Chris Osgood would have had his jersey retired after his rookie year. Heck, if he were a Dive the “fans” would expect him to lead off a shootout because they think that if a goalie scores you get two goals instead of one, then they can add that to the amount of saves he had in the final minute of regulation and come up with a reason to throw their hats on the ice.

But…he’s not, never has been and never will be. Of course, he did kick Roy’s ass so that should be enough to get him in, but I digress. Again.

MSG officials pledged to appeal the ruling against the injunction and also vowed to proceed with its overall lawsuit against the NHL. “This decision is one step in what will be a very long legal process and we look forward to having the opportunity to present the facts, which support our position.”

“Those are the terms I’ve been using. Ludicrous and absurd,” said Chiarelli. “I guess I’m angry at some of these takes. Commentaries, web sites, talk radio—you should hear some of the talk radio out of Montreal. They’re saying he’s partially at fault for this. It angers me. It angers the Bruins organization that they’d say it’s his fault in this case. To say he should have been more careful retrieving the puck, to me, is absurd.”

Osgood’s name doesn’t often come up in a discussion of potential Hall of Famers, but he’s going to force selectors to take a long look at him when he retires. Thursday night’s win gave him a career mark of 343-186-66, with 24 overtime losses. He has 43 shutouts, a career goals-against average of 2.44 and two Stanley Cup rings, including a 16-win performance in the run to the 1998 Cup. At age 34—he turns 35 on Nov. 26—Osgood easily could finish with more than 400 wins

Called up Mike Modano and asked him about the Eklund rumor that he might waive his no-trade clause for a chance to move somewhere else, and Modano said he has not thought about that and doesn’t plan on asking for a trade or waiving his no-trade clause.

“Yeah, I heard about that, too. It’s not true,’’ he said. “I plan on being there tomorrow and the day after that and the day after that. I’m just going to keep showing up and work myself through this.’‘

This week’s topic: There has been a real dichotomy between the success of young players and the struggles of older players. Are we seeing the end of the line for some venerable NHL stars?

Damien: Well, let’s not talk in generalities as we celebrate the 73rd NHL season of Chris Chelios. Which players, specifically, do we think are showing those telltale signs of wear and tear and should be thinking about retiring to the broadcast booth?

Scott: Well, we could start with two venerable Americans. First, Doug Weight…

The NHL board of governors will meet in Pebble Beach, Calif., later this month and the schedule will be the big news coming out of there.

It appears the governors are considering two options.

One, go back to the pre-lockout format. It is as follows:

* six games vs. each of four divisional opponents (24)
* four games vs. each of 10 conference opponents (40)
* one game vs. each of 15 out-of-conference opponents (15)
* three “wild-card” games vs. select out-of-conference opponents (3)

This format allows for every team to play every team at least once, but it would still be every other year before a player like Crosby would play in every building.

Two goals in 12 games? This puts Cheechoo on pace to score between 13 and 14 goals in an 82-game season. It isn’t the Cheechoo way.

See net, hit net, pump fist. That is the Cheechoo way. Two years ago, he had 56 goals to lead the NHL. Last season, he topped the team with 37 goals. But so far this season, he has lost his mojo. Sharks Coach Ron Wilson has moved Cheechoo off the top line - and has even occasionally used him on the penalty kill, to help get Cheechoo’s mind off his scoring speed bump and have him simply think about playing hockey.

The Ottawa Senators have indicated they will make a significant announcement this morning and sources tell TSN centre Jason Spezza has been signed a multi-year contract extension. More details to follow.

update 11:38am, from Bob McKenzie of TSN,

Jason Spezza has a new seven-year contract extension worth $49 million with the Ottawa Senators.

Spezza will get $8 million in each of the first five years of the contract and $5 million and $4 million, respectively, in the final two years. The cap hit will be $7 million per year for the Senators.

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